Manufacture of salt.



J. H. WEBSTER.

MANUFACTURE OF SALT. APPLICATION FILED 001. 1a, 1912.

Patented. Fb.11,1913.

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' Application fileiiQOctober isgi'erz Serial mime- 781 a .,Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, haye invented new and useful Improvements in or Connected. with the Manufacture of Salt, of which the following is a specification.

, This invention has reference to the manufacture of salt (chlorid of sodium), and

more particularly to that process of manufacture wherein the salt is melted by' heat, and subsequently formed into grains, the salt used for manufacturing into pure and white salt being impure rock salt, or other salt which is not white or is discolored or any other salt which can be advantageously having to allow it to solidify into blocks, and

subsequently to break and crush these blocks into grains of the sizes required.

According to the invention the salt is melted, and while in its molten state it is agitated, or moved, or broken up, by means of any suitable kind, operated by hand, or by mechanical means, while ina body, and cooling and solidifying in said body, and is thereby converted directly into a granular condition. The grains of salt thus produced, in most cases, vary in size; and the different sizes of grains or crystals are separated according to requirements, by screen One form of furnace in which the manufacture of salt hereundercan be carried outis given in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 a plan. v The salt is melted in a furnace chamber a; and from this melting chamber, the molten salt passes by ports Z) into and through the baths 0 separated by division walls or bridges d, in which it is purified in any known way, and the impurities deposited and removed; and from the last of these chambers 0, the salt flows by a gap ortgaps Specification of Letters Patent. l

in the bridge 6 into the chamber or bath 7 in which thesalt is finished or granulated by being moved about or agitatedby rakes or other instruments, the temperature of this chamber f being below the melting point of the salt; and by moving or stirring the salt about more or less continually on the floor of this chamber, it is directly formed into grains or crystals. This chamber f, if desired, can be separated from the other portion of the furnace chambers in which the baths 0 are, by a perforated wall or partition across it, so that the heat within these other chambers (from which the heating gases are carried off by the outlets g) is prevented from acting directly on in the chamber vVit-h regard to the heating of vthe furnace a, and the chambers or'spaces 0, these will be heated by combustible gases of a suitable kind to the required temperature to melt the salt in the manner of an ordinary reverberatory furnace; and to subsequently retain it in a molten condition.

With regard to the means of'moving or stirring the molten body of salt about in the chamber f by mechanical means working in the liquid salt, or on it, this may be effected 'by hand rakes or like instruments passed through suitable doorways in the sides or other part of the chamber; but no matter bei'ng violently treated by means of anair or steam blast or mechanical heaters; and most (if not all) of the grains so produced of different sizes are the finished sizes required in commerce; and. they can be graded or separated directly by sleving or screening into'their various sizes.

When mechanically operated means is used for converting the molten salt into the granular condition it can be of any kind by which the moltensalt is-moved, about in such a way as to break it up that 1s, so as to prevent it formingor setting mto lump or block form; and this, as stated, is done i by more or less continually acting on the salt from .the time it enters the finishing chamber, apparatus or vessel, to the time .the grains of saltappear and separate.

What I claim 'is: The herein described process of manufacturing salt in 'anul ar form from molten salt, consisting in moving about or stirring the molten salt in a body while cooling until grains appear and separate, substantially as 10 .escribed. v

In testimony w'hereof-Ihave signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. I

JOHN HERBERT WEBSTER. Witnesses:

DAVID HODKINSON, THOMAS MLDAWSON. 

